I have figured out how to move the digital camera files to a free dropbox. Most of what I am doing, now, is not photo art, but memories of todays. Tokens for my distant tomorrows.
Still having trouble with allergy reactions, but finding this year’s pattern. Dry air and hot, air quality not nearly so bad as last year around this time. The regular allergy medication that I have used for decades is enough.
I have another tentative start on my newest journal (online). Funny, getting lost in thoughts and come up for air with other paths I might like to follow. Since I do write mostly for my Self, that probably doesn’t matter. I think that I do my thinking while I am writing down my thoughts.
I look forward to the cooler, darker season with its flavors and breezes and returning energy. Walking at a faster pace. Cleaner air.
It is nice to get to the cooler, more damp weather and see the grass and ground cover green, again. No lawn grass to speak of, since the native plants took advantage of the lack of competition for growing space. Orchard Morning Glories (aka bindweed) staked out the shaded spots in the back yard, and the Oxalis (wood sorrel varieties) provides a comfortable bed to walk on in the lower levels of the backyard fence.
The Scampers are keeping their feet out of the damp grass, but for essentials. Thadd has taken to cozying up to me as I read a book or try to write a blog post. I awoke in the middle of the night to find that he (my dog) has moved from his kennel to the foot of my reclining chair.
I discovered that I really do have several common evening primroses in the south and east sides of the house, both in and outside of the backyard fencing. I peered behind a forming flower bud and spied one of the long-legged spiders that settle into hiding, waiting for their prey to step up to the flower in bloom. Love the beauty of both the spiders and the plants!
Looking back through the files, archives of early poems, I realize that I have written some longer poems, off and on, even though I fell in love with writing haiku in the mid-60s.
Tired. Going to sleep, now. How did it get to be so late?
Saturday afternoon was interrupted by Tornado Watches for both sides of the state line (North Dakota/Minnesota USA). Sunday was much more peaceful, although neither of us slept soundly. Aside from the Scampers. Again, it is difficult to concentrate on anything…or I block out my surroundings completely, leaving the dogs to their own dreams.
Somehow, without my noticing, the day is now Monday, and the hour is Noon. The setting is as it was, except that I have switched from coffee to tea. The AQI has gone from safe to not so much, and the Scampers are going out unaccompanied.
Curiosity
I am having quite a argument with the new-and-improved methods for placing media and paragraphs on the page. The old and compact forms were more malleable.. As I try to find the computer keys, I find again that I have a dog lying across my left arm.
However, these days have had nothing scheduled since the co-working Zoom session on Saturday afternoon. I did make gestures toward other activities, but nothing to the purpose. I have slept a lot, and I think that the scattered naps are helping. In the in-between, I finished rereading A Stranger to Command (Sherwood Smith) and started “The Summoning” Series (Robin D. Owens) from the beginning, again.
On the bright side, I am back on the elliptical machine. That is, I used it yesterday and plan to do the same today, but for a longer stretch. I downplay (to myself) the effects of poor air quality and the changing seasons. Writing of itself is a priming of the pump.
Woke up last night to find a millipede stepping from my bed sheet to my hand. I’m not sure which of us was more startled. (I must check for moist crannies in the next room, the bathroom, and deal with the damp.) Got the adrenaline flowing, and so I had unexpected extra hours of reading, getting the dogs back to sleep.
This morning, I let the Scampers outside, to discover two adult robins and a fledgling in the grass. Charlie has a soft mouth, and I think that there was no physical injury when I took the bird back outside.
Taking each of the Scampers, on a leash, out the front door, I found the fellow next door with his dog, off his leash and practicing retrieving. Hunting dog.
I will have to remind Al to not put his new lawn sprinkler to use in the back yard until next week if the baby bird is still good shape. The cotoneaster leaves and branches should keep off the rain.
Many hours later, the Scampers are howling that they must revisit the back yard, again. I hope that I survive the tension. ::sigh::
P.S. The Scampers, each in turn, went into the back yard on their leash. The dogs behaved remarkably well, and the Robin parents are still vigorously protecting their fledgling. Going to take another nap, now.
Morning awakening was earlier than I had set the alarm for. And so I checked the Monday haiku challenge that I have not gotten to for too many weeks, knew what I wanted to write, and so skipped looking for a photo to post only the haiku itself on my poetry blog.
The other of us will be mowing the lawn, tomorrow, I spent a while in the back and side yards with the camera on the phone. Tulips, dandelions, and wild violets! While out there, I pulled a lot of the long grass in the chives plot. The chives are doing well, so far. I am not enthusiastic about hollyhocks anymore. Doesn’t fit with anything else, and so I cut them down to the dirt. I hope to do the same with the alyssum plants when they appear.
My last meeting with my Artist’s Way course was on Saturday. After all these years, I finally figured out (after decades) why I cannot do Morning Pages. I am happy, inspired and eager to dig in and do, beginning with welcoming the Scamper dogs to the bed while I catch up on writing poetry, check the news, fix coffee for Al and toddy coffee breakfast for me, and dive into the day. I move around. I feel energized, more often than not. Recapping and retrospection are for the endings of the days. Recognize, understand, relax, and go to sleep with my dog curled up with me on my recliner.
Time for supper and another cup of tea. Raw veggies, hard-boiled eggs, and an ounce of cheese. (Seriously Sharp cheddar for tonight. Gouda on Tuesday.)
Welcome to the (filtered, cooled) kitchen. We have hot brew and cold brew coffee; also loose-leaf English breakfast tea and the sample teabag packets that Stash Tea sends out for free with each order. I drink English Breakfast Tea, which leaves a broad range of choices for my visitors.
Summer has come, with dry ground and higher temperatures, and I, who dislike the hot weather, find myself befuddled when it comes to conversing coherently. Hence the photography and photo art off and on until the first frost of autumn.
"Guessing Games"
without words . . .
Schrodinger's cat has my tongue
or does she?
I wonder if Schrodinger also had dogs, but was too timid to suggest any other-dimensional allusions to them.
Summer Morning
Summer Hollyhocks
Cascading Blooms
Wild Flax and Alyssum
Walking Stick.and White Campion
Sunbeams
My weekend is to be busy, here, with Zoom meetings (social meet-up and meeting for worship), and sibling and spouse visiting (on short notice) and possibly a short outing with them. I have 183 more photograph files from this week to go through, deleting the pictures I will not be using.
Making some headway with the breathing and allergy problems, including wearing a face mask whenever I am breathing the outside air, and taking a shower and changing clothes a couple times a day. Relaxed enough to take naps and enjoy leisure reading. (Still not back to Fukuyama! ::sigh:: ) Avoiding the news as though it were all old news. I am back to L.E. Modesitt, Jr. and his most recent book. Rereading it again in anticipation of book 2 of the series, which I think comes out in November of this year. I seem to remember his saying that book 3 in the series is also written and ready for publication early next year.
I have been writing little poems during the week. They just seem to pop up when I am working with my photo art. That is lots of fun. I did not have any problem coming up with poetry challenge prompts, this week. Quite pleased with what turned out; my RonovanWrites poems are, as usual, on my QuiltedPoetry WordPress blog.
Despite the frequent forecasts of rain showers, the grass has not retained moisture, but is turning brown wherever there is not shade from the sun during most of the day. Saturday is to be HOT, followed by promises for thunderstorms from Saturday night through Monday night. The thistles are doing well, and I hope to keep them growing to the flowering stage, when the flowers are fresh and delightful. Trick is to get rid of them, again, before they go to seed. I am already pulling up the smaller thistles around the gazebo. The gravel is deep, and I can easily pull them out, tap roots and all.
I had been worried about the absence of the spiders who spin the large webs in the grass along the bottom of the workshop’s base. Today, I at last discovered one spider in its customary spot, setting up a web. They are the ones, I think, that maintain large networks of sticky webs that catch all sorts of insects, but also dew on misty mornings and raindrops from nighttime rain. I love the dewy mesh and the shiny, metallic-looking drops as they catch the light.
Thank you for stopping by! Feels good to just sit down and chat about what’s been going through my mind, lately. Writing/talking/listening is the most relaxing part of my days and nights. Where do we live, after all, but in our minds, which convey to us realities as well as dreams?
Best wishes for the weekend and the coming weeks and years!
Breaks in the Day 